THE UNITED STATES vsAPOLONIO CABALLEROS, ET AL.

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G.R. No. 1352, March 29, 1905
Mapa

FACTS
Roberto Baculi, confessed to having assisted in the burial of the corpses American
school-teachers Louis A. Thomas, Clyde O. France, John E. Wells, and Ernest Eger. Witness,
Teodoro Sabate, says he was present when the Americans were killed; that Roberto Baculi was
not a member of the group who killed the Americans, but the he was in a banana plantation on
his property gathering some bananas.

ISSUE
Whether or not not reporting to the authorities the perpetration of a crime is
punishable by Penal Code.

RULING
The Supreme Court acquit the defendants, appellants, with the costs de oficio in both
instances.
The Court ruled that Baculi acted, doubtless, under such circumstances when he
executed the acts which are charged against him. the confession of Apolonio Caballeros was
made through the promise made to him and to the other defendants that nothing would be
done to them. Confessions which do not appear to have been made freely and voluntarily,
without force, intimidation, or promise of pardon, can not be accepted as proof on a trial.
The fact of the defendants not reporting to the authorities the perpetration of the
crime, which seems to be one of the motives for the conviction and which the court below
takes into consideration in his judgment, is not punished by the Penal Code and therefore that
can not render the defendants criminally liable according to law.